Father Returning Home Poem Summary Class 12 English
Father Returning Home
Dilip Chitre
About the Poet:
Dilip Chitre was a well-known bilingual poet and translator. He wrote in Marathi and English. Even he was a painter, film-maker and columnist. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award, as well as for his work ‘Says Tuka’, popular abhangas (spiritual poems) by Sant Tukaram. When he was just 16 years, he started translation of literary work of saints in Marathi. The major themes of his works are exile, alienation, self -disintegration and death.
About the Poem:
This poem is taken from ‘Travelling in a Cage’. It portrays a suburban commuter. This poem highlights dull, monotonous, exhausting and equally pitiable daily routine of an old father. The poet presented the sordid condition of old father at home. The poem explores that there is no any kind of importance of old people in the family and society. A forced alienation at home is reflected through the stale food and lack of sharing. The children of old father refuse to share their joys and sorrows with their hardworking father. Loneliness is a symbol of man’s isolation from the materialistic man-made world.
Summary
There are two sections of this poem having 12 lines each. The poet has used very simple and straight forward language to highlight the forced alienation of old father in the family. Even it comments on the place of old people in the society and family.
In the first section of the poem, the poet presents the picture of old father who is travelling on late evening train among silent commuters. It describes hard work of old father. There is no any kind of communication among the passengers who are travelling. It presents the loneliness of old father. He is not paying attention out of the window while travelling. He does mean old father has put on soaked shirt and pant. Even we notice that he is carrying stained black raincoat with mud and a bag filled up with books. It comes to know his poor emotional and physical health.
As his station comes he gets off the train and walking very fast towards his home. He crosses the grey platform, railway line, and finally enters the lane to get his home as early as possible. Grey platform this phrase highlights the sordid condition of old father.
In the second section of the poem, the poet explores the condition of old father at home. As he comes in his home, he is served a cup of very cold tea and the stale food. It does mean that there is no any kind of place and importance of old people in the family and society. At home, to spend his spare time the old father has to read books and has to go into toilet to contemplate. Seating in the toilet hours and hours, he might be thinking about his life and situation. As he comes out the toilet, he is unable to walk properly somehow he reaches at the wash basin to wash his hands. He is helpless.
His children who are bad in nature refuse to share jokes and secrets of the family. They don’t allow him to participate in any kind of communication. To this we can call he has to live his life in a forced alienation. Meanwhile he said, “Man’s estrangement from a man-made world”. It does mean that he has created his own world but now at this time he has been thrown away from his world. It presents the real picture of life, family and society too.
In the late evening he goes to bed but he is unable to get sleep that’s why he listens to the radio. Even he tries to recall his past life, his ancestors and grandchildren. He is thinking about his tribe who came in the present continent.